


Chapter 3

by Adge



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 19:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adge/pseuds/Adge





	Chapter 3

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Stand Still Stay Silent](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/514046) by Minna Sundberg. 

# Chapter 3

High-mooded Mora, hill-girt capital,  
Its station filled with still rail-cars   
Profitlessly stored for stubborn pride   
Of Swedish folk, faring southwards  
To the ocean bridge of Öresund.  
Few and hardy the folk riding  
The Dalahast road through dangerous lands  
Where trolls and giants the trains have shent  
And passengers slain. The companions join  
The waiting folk, few and nervous  
At the boarding ramp. The route-master,  
Steel-horse ostler, sturdy folk-guard,  
Leads them aboard, but Lalli night-scout,  
Wise-eyed noita, noes the command –   
Feels in the dark a future threat,  
A baleful power; begs from Kuutar,  
Moon-queen merciful, mighty guardian,  
Her cleansing light to clear their way:  
“Gracious Kuutar, great Moon-lady,  
Heaven's Daughter, Highest Wisdom,  
Hear your faithful follower's pleading  
Hear my weeping, wanhope fearing,  
Hear and help this home-far servant;  
Shield my way with shimmering silver  
Lead my path where light will guard me,  
Where no death can whelm my spirit  
No fell goblins gape my earth-home,  
Grief remove from my long journey  
That to Tuoni's teine I come not  
In his halls not held as captive!”  
Forlorn, fearful, Lalli, night-scout,  
Couraged by light from Kuutar sent  
Boards with the others the bastion car.  
The strait bunk-beds, with straps harnessed,   
By cats guarded, give them problems  
As the tracks rattle the rolling train;  
Swede-tongued Emil, Suomi Lalli  
With mute distrust of restraining belts,   
In their crossed tongues cry a good word  
As they lull to sleep. Lalli night-scout,  
Wight mage-gifted, wakes in the dark;  
Noita wary, in the night sensing  
Fiend-ettin words in the wireless noise,  
A troll presence in the train’s path;  
An unfurling giant, a foe too near  
In moonless night. Nudging Emil  
To lock his belt, Lalli night-scout  
Abides the crash; belt-slack Emil  
Is flung to the floor, flying to ground.  
As the train-guardians for control fight   
In the lurching car, Lalli mage-scout  
Dives to the coach-hall; dumb and steadfast  
Points to the roof; the route-master  
His tenor grasps and the team prepares  
For the giant that rips the roof away –   
A fell serpent, its folds cascade  
From the cabin’s ceil to the coach-hall floor  
Through warrior’s shots; a worm gore-sparging,  
Its blows dunching the bloodied walls,  
The star-cracked doors; stiff-hearted, the crew  
With gunshots shear the shent screamers,  
But defiant guns are futile to scathe  
Or hinder the thirse in its hunt for prey.  
Rib-fingered arms reach and strangle;  
Claw-tentacled heads clamber and flail  
For their fresh meat. Masking the folk  
In the locked sleep-car, the line-warriors,  
Car-folk guardians, with courage strong   
The fell foe-giant fight undaunted,  
cutting, slashing, slamming, punching,  
Barring the steel-hold from the beating arms  
Fishing for prey. But their fierce attacks  
Halt not the giant; their hand weapons –  
One mark making on a manifold enemy –  
Stem not the foe, till a stour unguessed:  
Foe-limbs and blood fall among them  
Snipped at the roof; the snake-ettin’s lich  
Scoured from the car, scotched and severed;  
Its doom a tunnel. But death for the foe  
Comes not at once; cut and divided  
Each foe segment, each fiend-hame scrap  
Still lives and fights. Fearing for Lalli,  
Emil, panicking, punches a face  
Of the giant’s core, casts it to silence  
From desperate woe. One by slow one  
The coach guardians uncover the threats,  
Shend the fragments and reassurance bring  
To the terrified folk: that task endures  
To morning’s edge; the iron-road mare  
Surfs breaking day to the Danish bridge.  
The train is met by the tricky old fox  
Trond, eld-fighter, and travellers two,  
New companions for the purposed quest.


End file.
